We partner with School and Academy Trust sector bodies The Confederation of School Trusts (CST), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Institute of School Business Leaders (ISBL) and The Trust Network. They continue to advocate hard on behalf of schools and trusts and are offering guidance and advice on operational issues. Some key items are highlighted here.
DfE Academy conversion grant
The Academy Conversion Grant was updated last month to reflect the new eligibility criteria. Essential points are summarised below. Full guidance is available here.
With effect from 1 September 2024
A maintained mainstream school that applies to convert to academy status, will only be eligible for the £25k conversion support grant if they are joining an academy trust in a group with at least two other schools and are approved by the relevant Regional Director at the same time.
What is important is the converter applications are considered together by the Regional Director when taking a decision. The schools do not have to join the trust on the same date (because of the vagaries of individual projects) but the decision on them joining must be made at the same time. Ideally, the trust would have submitted a single application which sets out the strategic rationale for this phase of growth, which should focus on why it makes sense for the schools and trust.
The DfE is not changing the conversion support grant for special schools and pupil referral units – these remain eligible for the support grant if applying to convert without other joining schools.
The support grant will not be dependent on the existing size of the academy trust, but what matters is the number of schools which are joining the academy trust.
From 1 September, a single maintained mainstream school applying to convert and join an academy trust will not be eligible for the support grant unless there are two other schools which will also be joining the academy trust. The announcement does not state that the schools joining the academy trust need to be other converting mainstream schools. For example, one of the three joining schools could be an academy transferring from another academy trust – although only the converting schools would be eligible for the conversion support grant in this case.
The effect of this change will need to be monitored.
Between now and 1 September 2024
For mainstream schools wishing to convert under the current eligibility criteria (that are not part of a group), there is an incentive to register your interest with the Department for Education by 26 April 2024, with the application for an academy order to be submitted by 7 June 2024. The Regional Director must also have approved the application by 1 September 2024 to receive the grant. If these deadlines are met, then a single maintained mainstream school which is not part of a group will be eligible for the support grant.
DfE: PE and School Sports Guidance
The DfE published new non-statutory guidance on Enhancing physical education provision and improving access to sport and physical activity in school. The guidance includes information to help schools increase access to PE, physical activity and extra-curricular school sport, including examples of good practice.
Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme Phase 4
Following the Low Carbon Skills Fund application window, Salix have now launched Phase 4 of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). The main change will be a move away from the ‘first-come-first-served’ bid assessment process as with LCSF. The full technical guidance and eligibility criteria will be published in Summer 2024. Organisations in receipt of SCA with time-expired heating systems that are scheduled for replacement will be the target for applications. Contact Barker for a free initial discussion about potential bids and application support.
DfE: Sustainability support
The DfE plans to launch The Sustainability Support Hub for Education, in June as an online home for resources and tools to support the development of climate action plans. In the meantime, Barker has a Sustainability Self-Assessment Checklist and Sustainability Strategy Template that you can download via the website.